Last night in a room-full of interested listeners Mark Anderson captivated us with humor, heart-ache and wisdom. In Mark’s inspiring story entitled “Defeat to Victory” he shared some strategies that have enabled him to overcome tremendous obstacles and achieve high levels of performance in his life.

Mark and his family faced many challenges growing up. Fortunately, as he said, “things change.”

“My mom is the greatest mom. She’s not the perfect mom, but she’s the greatest mom. She’s my mom and she’ll always be the only woman I ever call ‘my mom.’ It took her seven marriages, but she’s now seventy-nine years old and she has been married to the same guy for thirty-five years.”

He discussed his years of bullying, “the kids didn’t mean to hurt me. They just didn’t know me.”

But the bullying and teasing took their toll. Mark felt suicidal. Several nights he attempted suicide. Now he looks back and is grateful that he didn’t end his life. Mark challenged his audience to see the value of life from his new perspective:

“You don’t want you life to end — you want the pain to end, you want an end to the hurt — but, you don’t want to end your life.”

Mark added, “you have in you a dream. You are a valuable, capable, worthy and creative person with great potential.”

“You will only not succeed if you choose not to try.”

Recognizing the power of friendship Mark reminded us that, true friends build dreams. “You can be a dream-maker or a dream-breaker. True friends build dreams.”

Referencing his years as a decathlete, and in particular, his high jump challenges, Mark asked us to look into our own lives. “What’s your bar? … Wherever you start will get higher as long as you determine to get better.”

Mark inspired, motivated, empowered and made us laugh as he challenged us to effectively deal with life’s challenges and problems so that we can each realize our full potential.